BUas in lead to organize “Mobility Powered by the Youth” conference

Because of the success of last year’s conference, Nina Nesterova and Ekaterina Uzunova from the Built Environment domain at BUas, have organized this event for a second year in a row. 

Urban Mobility Days is a biennial conference, jointly organised in 2022 by the European Commission, Directorate-General for Mobility & Transport (DG MOVE), and the Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU. This year’s theme was ‘Moving people and goods more sustainably’ and across three days (20-22 September), the Urban Mobility Days put the spotlight on young voices and views, to involve Europe’s young people on the path towards climate resilience.

In line with the 2022 European Year of Youth, the Mobility Powered by the Youth conference aims to build the urban mobility professional community of tomorrow. The conference allows young professionals to present their research in front of an international audience with representatives from academia, industry, government and various European institutions. PhD and master`s students exchanged ideas and experiences with well-recognized academics and professionals of the CIVITAS Educational Network and high-level European Commission officials.  

The programme of the event featured an opening plenary with keynotes from Herald Ruijters (Director Investment, Innovative and Sustainable Transport, DG MOVE) and Dr. Marcel Rommerts (Head of Unit Transport Research, European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency). This was followed by a presentation of the CIVITAS Educational Network from Dr. Nina Nesterova (Team Lead Sustainable and Smart Mobility, Breda University of Applied Sciences) and a speech by Prof. Dr. Theocharis Tsoutsos (Director, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Lab, Technical University of Crete) on the ways youth powers the future of mobility. 

Thereafter, six PhD and master`s students shared their projects and views on various urban mobility themes. Presentations were given by Hannes Delaere (Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium), Gabriele Iannaccone (Roma Tre University, Italy), Sheba Nair (Tampere University, Finland), Jennifer Hostland (FH Joanneum University of Applied Sciences, Austria), Isabel Bezerra da Cunha (University of Porto, Portugal) and Kateřina Kührová (University of Graz, Austria). 

An interactive panel discussion on the topic of “the role and the integration of youth into the mobility transition” closed the conference. It featured the panelists Dr. Octavia Stepan (Head of Sector, Integrated Transport and Urban Mobility, European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency), Dr. Giacomo Lozzi (Research & Project Manager, Transport Research Lab – Roma Tre University), Edwin Mermans (Senior Advisor International Affairs, Department of Mobility and Infrastructure, Province of North Brabant) and the young professionals Gabriele Iannaccone and Sheba Nair.

The event was co-organized by the CIVITAS ELEVATE consortium (the CIVITAS 2020 Coordination and Support Action) in cooperation with CINEA and DG MOVE. 

For more upcoming events and other announcements, please follow the official page of Mobility Powered by the Youth: www.civitas.eu/mobility-powered-by-youth.